Be Mine, Locally Handcrafted Jewellery

by: Well Made Clothes Staff |
4 months ago
| Features

Image: Holly Ryan handcrafted jewellery in her Redfern studio.

We love jewellery as much as the next person, but not all jewellery is created equal. Which is why we’re choosing locally handcrafted pieces this Valentine’s Day. In contrast to the fast turnarounds and low-cost overseas production of fast fashion brands, our locally handcrafted jewellery is made by highly skilled workers, using traditional craft techniques.

It is important to preserve these techniques right now. According to UNESCO, handcraftsmanship is an integral, intangible, part of humanity's cultural heritage. However, “globalisation poses significant challenges to the survival of traditional forms of craftsmanship.” In fact, Business of Fashion argues that traditional craftsmanship is now “on the verge of extinction”.

The best way to support the continuation of age-old artisanship is not by preserving craft objects, UNESCO says, but actually by “encouraging artisans to continue to produce craft and to pass their skills and knowledge onto others”. Enter locally handcrafted jewellery labels like Holly Ryan, Pip Stent and Two Hills.

These local and handcrafted labels help to uphold the cultural wisdom of age-old craftsmanship, and they provide local jobs right here in Australia. The raw materials used in their jewellery – like gold and silver – also rarely lose their value, which means that they can be passed down through the generations, or melted down and repurposed to help reduce, reuse, recycle.

So we happen to think that locally handcrafted jewellery makes the perfect gift this Valentine’s Day. It’s a gift not only to our loved ones (or to self tbh), but also to the legacy of our cultural history. With that in mind, here are some of our fave Valentine’s appropriate brands.